1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cloth towel dispenser with two adjoining towel units, whereof each towel unit has a casing with a cover, a delivery point with a delivery roller for receiving and for the portionwise unrolling of a clean towel roll and a draw-in point with a draw-in roller for drawing in and winding up the used towel part to form a roll and usable for drying the hands by manually pulling out a towel loop, the delivery roller being connected with the draw-in roller by means of a gear and on the underside of the casing is located an indicator flap pivotably mounted in the casing side walls and which in the visible position indicates that the towel unit is ready to use.
2. Description of Related Art
Towel dispensers in which a cloth portion is made available for drying the hands are known in numerous different constructions. In most towel dispensers the user draws a cloth portion out of the dispenser so that he can dry his hands. The cloth towel is a strip of finite length available for a certain number of uses and which must then be replaced. To be able to bridge the resulting interruption in use, it is known from the Applicant's EP-A-0 283 554 to use a cloth towel dispenser comprising two adjoining or abutting towel units. The two towel units of this so-called twin dispenser are constructed precisely identically. The cloth towel thereof is passed by means of a delivery roller onto a draw off roller. On pulling out the cloth for forming a towel loop the draw-in roller is also rotated by means of an envelope drive or gear. The draw-in roller contains a spring tension accumulator, which is drawn up during each towel loop formation. The length of the towel which can be drawn out is limited by a catch. Following the drawing out of a towel loop and at the end of a certain period of time the spring tension accumulator rotates the draw-in roller and consequently winds the towel loop onto the same, so that the used loop disappears. This known twin dispenser functions reliably. As soon as the cloth towel of one towel unit is used up, the second towel unit is freed for operation, in that its signal or indicator flap is pivoted into the visible position. The towel unit with the used cloth towel can be replaced during the operation of the second towel unit and made available in such a way that when the towel in the second towel unit has been used, the first towel unit is ready to operate again.
To ensure that the cloth towel of a towel unit is completely used, it is known to block the next towel unit to go into operation and to only free it when the towel in the operating unit has been completely used. When towel users appear in quick succession, it is unavoidable that one of the waiting people will attempt to use the blocked towel unit. However, the force which is exerted leads to a problem and consequently said towel unit fails.
Therefore the problem of the present invention is to avoid the risk of a fault of the towel unit not in operation in that although a use thereof is possible, this is not indicated.